Armie Hammer’s ‘Citizen Vigilante’ Return Gets Global Deal After Elon Musk Promotes | Today’s news

Armie Hammer’s return to starring roles has received an unlikely boost after Citizen Vigilante, the actor’s controversial comeback film, secured expanded worldwide distribution following an Elon Musk promotion.

Armie Hammer’s movie gets global deal after Elon Musk’s sudden promo

Quiver Distribution has acquired worldwide rights to the action thriller, excluding the UK, German-speaking territories, South Korea and Taiwan, according to an exclusive Variety report. The company, led by co-presidents Jeff Sackman and Berry Meyerowitz, has already secured North American rights and released the film in the region on June 19.

The international deal comes days after Musk shared Citizen Vigilante in its entirety on his social media platform X, allowing users to download the film for free for 48 hours from Thursday to Saturday. The move exposed the film to the platform’s wide user base and generated considerable online attention.

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German filmmaker Uwe Boll, who directed the film, described his surprise in an interview with Variety when he learned that Musk had contacted the production team through Boll’s American podcast, Uwe Boll Raw, which he co-hosts with Gary Otto.

“He contacted my American podcast, but not me directly, and they said, like, ‘We got a message from Elon Musk,'” Boll said. “I thought it must be a parody account… I mean, you don’t really think he’d contact you, but then it turned out to be true.”

Boll added that his direct interaction with Musk has been limited.

“But I didn’t really talk to him or talk to him. It was very quick, you know. I think the guy, I don’t know what he does in a day, but I think his attention span went quickly, you know. So I also felt that if we disagreed in some way, he would just move on.”

Asked if Musk had asked for permission before uploading the film to X, Boll said: “In principle, yes.”

The director acknowledged that allowing audiences to access the film for free may have undermined some of its immediate commercial prospects, but argued that the unprecedented publicity generated by Musk’s endorsement could ultimately prove more valuable.

“There’s obviously a good side and a bad side to sending X,” Boll said. “The question you have to evaluate is: Does it ultimately make more money or does it cost me a lot of money? You know, you get a lot of PR, but you don’t get a lot of money. So we’ll figure that out in the next four or six weeks.”

Boll suggested that the political discussions generated by the film also influenced the decision to allow Musk to distribute it on the platform.

He said that because of the “political power” the film unleashed, and because “then it only came out in the US and Canada, it was kind of like: No, we should at least give this film to the world for a little while”.

The director noted that the film has yet to receive a classification in the UK and has been refused certification in Germany. As distribution prospects in several territories appeared limited, Boll concluded that there was little downside to releasing the film through X.

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“So that’s the thing, you feel like, ‘Why not,’ you know? Like, go for it,” he said.

Citizen Vigilante stars Hammer as Sanders, the vigilante at the center of the action thriller. The film is one of the actor’s highest-profile projects since his career came to a screeching halt following allegations of sexual abuse and harassment that surfaced in 2021. Hammer has consistently denied wrongdoing and ultimately no criminal charges were filed against him.

According to Boll, the film has generated approximately $600,000 in revenue since its North American release through digital platforms including iTunes, Amazon, Fandango and Google Play. With an estimated production budget of around $2 million, the director acknowledged that the film remains some distance from recouping its costs.

Still, Boll said he’s already thinking about a sequel, which he hopes to release next year.

“When you make a successful movie, you always hope you can do a sequel, and it would make sense to send (Sanders, the vigilante played by Hammer) to England or send him to America, and then go from there.”

Although Boll said there are early ideas for a sequel, he confirmed that no script has yet been written. When asked if Hammer would return for a sequel, the director said, “I think he would love to.”

Variety reported that it had reached out to representatives for Hammer to confirm whether the actor would reprise the role, but had not heard back at the time of publication.